Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic: Taris
by tankgirly
Summary: The escape pod carrying Carth Onasi and Skye Imarr crashed onto plant Taris. Now their main task was to search for the surviving Jedi Bastila while avoiding the detection of the Sith.
1. Chapter 1

**Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic**  
_** Taris**_

Part One

Carth Onasi looked up from the datapad panel with a frown. He thought he had heard something. Best to be safe than sorry, he edged closer towards the sliding door to lean his head closely. There were some arguing noises coming from the corridor, but nothing relative to him whatsoever. He let out a relief sign and went back to the desk, picking up the datapad once more.

It's been three days since they landed on this planet. The escape pod that carried Carth and Skye did not exactly have a smooth landing. It had experienced some strong air current when it entered the atmosphere and shaken violently. When it crashed onto the surface, the shock was so severe the safety harness broke. They were tossed and bounced all over the place inside the escape pod. Skye eventually got bumped onto her head and knocked her unconscious.

Carth managed to flee the landing site before the authorities arrived, carrying the unconscious Skye with him. He found an abandoned apartment complex nearby, which was quite handy. They could use it as their base while waiting for Skye to wake up and looking for Bastila.

He glanced at Skye, who did not seem to have a pleasant dream. Her slender brows were furrowing. She was thrashing about in bed, mumbling something inaudible. The fragility he had seemed in her on the _Endar Spire_ was once again coming back to her. She looked terribly vulnerable.

"…NO, do not go down that path…"

"Nonsense…"

"…Do you think you can get out of this?….alive….."

"…I am sick of this…action…"

Against all his common senses and logics, Carth abandoned his work once more, leaned over and put his hand on hers. It immediately had some degrees of calming effect, because her stiff body relaxed almost straight away and the woman drifted into a deeper sleep-a place where no nightmares could trouble her. He drew over the blanket, tugged around Skye tightly before quickly stepped back.

He still could not believe this was the person both the Republic and the Jedi Council risking everything wanted to protect. Yes, from the dossier she seemed perfect. And the excellent training and astonishing reflex had proven the stats were correct when they were on _Endar Spire_, but other than that there was nothing remarkable about her.

All right, perhaps that was not entirely true. She was amazingly beautiful. His heart missed a beat every time he looked at her velvet blue eyes. They were full of emotions and ragged thoughts. But these also had nothing to do with why she was added in the last minute, why they refused to tell him her role on this mission, and last but not least, why did they decided to come to _Taris_- a remote planet so far away from the Core World? Things still didn't add up.

Carth's eyes drifted onto Skye Imarr again. On one hand, he would like to, even crave to, know her a bit more; but on the other hand, he wanted nothing to do with her. He understood too well- the more he knew her; the more he would start to like her and eventually trusting her, like he did to others in the past. Who could guarantee she won't betray him, like Saul did? There was nothing as painful as being betrayed by someone who you once admired and relied your entire life on. No, he did not want to experience that again. _NEVER_.

x x x

_It was one of those dreams again. Skye knew it. It was the same female Jedi. She was not along this time, there were several other Jedi accompanied her. She could see herself stood the bridge, watching them slashing through the elite troopers who were escorting her. Skye gripped her lightsabers firmly. There was a sense of panic and anxious rose within her, which had never happened to her life before._

_The Jedi finally made it in front of her. When the final trooper fell, the female Jedi looked at her with triumph: "You can't win!"_

"_Don't be so sure, young padawan!" Skye heard herself sneered, switching her lightsabers from one hand to the other._

_The female Jedi took a step forward and was going to strike. Suddenly a strong vibration tipped everybody over. Someone had attacked Skye's flagship. _

_Skye was badly hit. She lied on the floor, panting, slowly loosing her consciousness. _

_The last thing she saw was the female Jedi approached her with great caution…._

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Skye was screaming when she woke, hands waved about in front of her frantically before rolled onto the floor from her bed. She immediately jumped up; her body was into a combat mode and her eyes scanned around the room wildly.

"Glad to see your are up." A familiar husky voice came from the corner of the room. Skye turned her head and looked straight into a pair of auburn eyes, filling with a mixture of gratefulness, relief and concern. Quite a handsome man, Skye thought vaguely.

" Had a bad dream, huh?" The man asked and quickly introduced himself when he realised she was still glaring at him with a blank expression on her face: "I am Carth Onasi. Remember?"

"The Commander on the ship. Yes….sir." Skye looked at him for a few moments before opened her mouth.

"How you feeling?" Carth handed over a mug, indicated her to sip.

Skye did. There were some soups inside. Quite a yummy one, too. But she guessed she feel that way because she was hungry.

"There are also some foods here." His head slight cocked toward the table: "I suppose you are hungry?"

"Oh, yeah." Skye's oval broke into a faint grin, admitting: "Starving. I could eat a Kath Hound!"

She slipped out of bed and stumbled towards the table, grabbing the first food she could reach and beginning to stuff them into her mouth. Her luminous sapphire eyes glanced around the room as she kept her mouths occupied. Carth folded his arms and watched her with great amusements. Most women he knew of, including those well-trained female Republic colleague of his, were always very careful about their food munching manners. Here she was, eating away without a care of the Galaxy. It was either she was really hungry or…

"Arh…where are we exactly, sir?" After a few minutes' feeding frenzy, Skye managed swallow a big gulp of bread in her mouth and asked.

"We are on _Taris_. Remember?" Carth frowned: "My Force, the bump on your head caused greater effect than I had estimated—"

"Oh, I know that!" Skye snapped, rolling her eyes: "I mean, where exactly are we on _Taris_, sir?"

"In some abandoned apartment." Carth peered outside the window next to him: "Our pod landed in the Upper City. It was…quite chaotic and confusing at the scene. I managed to drag you away from the crash site before they realised what just happened and found this complex. By the time the Sith arrived, we were long gone. Pretty neat hideout, huh?"

"Yeah…" Skye gazed around the room: "Are you sure no one lives in here? This room looks really luxury, surely…"

"Oh no, the door was wide open when I came in. I am pretty sure there is no one lives here for a long time. _Taris_ is a run-down planet. There are quite a few abandoned apartments like this throughout the Upper City."

"Oh, right…" Skye moved away from the table and pace around the room with the soup in her hand. Occasionally she would stop and inspecting certain features in the room.

"….I suppose I owe you my thanks." Deep blue eyes were back at him after a few moments' silence..

"What for?" Carth quirked his eyebrow.

"You saved my life, sir." Skye gave him a soft smile: "We barely knew each other. You could have just leaved with the last escape pod without me."

"There is no need to thanks." Carth's face went pink: "I've never leave my men behind on a mission and I am not about to start it now. And another thing…."

Skye looked at him questionably.

"Stop calling me 'sir'. There are only you and I on this planet so I suggest the formality will not be necessary. Carth will do."

"All right, thank you….Carth." thanked Skye sincerely. It gave Carth some degree of joyfulness when hearing his name passing her lips, but he chose to ignore it for now.

"…..Urh…I think we should start discussing our plan on _ Taris_ ." Carth let out a dry cough, trying to change the topic: "I did a little scouting around while you were out. Apparently there were other escape pods crashed not very long before ours did. They crashed at the Under City."

"Oh."

"I think Bastila were among one of those pods."

"_Bastila_?" A hint of panic flickered past her large eyes, but it was gone within seconds. The commander thought he must had imagined it.

"The Commander onboard the _Endar Spire _?" He looked at her with great concern: "I really should find you a doctor to have a good look at the bump at your head…"

"And the Jedi, right?" Skye waved her hands impatiently: "Trask told me already. He also mentioned part of our job on this mission was to ensure her safety."

"So you know. Well, that makes my briefing a hell lot easier. We'll need to go to the Under City to see if we can find Bastila." Carth concluded.

"…Why do I have a feeling that it is not just a simple stroll-down-the-park to go to the Under City?" Skye finished up her soup and put the mug down. After a moment of hesitation, she picked up a bread roll and started tear it to smaller pieces, popping them into her mough.

"No, you are right, it won't be. The Sith had declared martial law and put a planet wide quarantine on _Taris. _There are patrol officers everywhere. Entrance to Lower City and Under City are now under the heavy guard. No one is allow to travel anywhere without proper authorisation paperwork." The Commander explained.

"Jolly good." Skye commented gloomily. She slowly walked over to the footlocker at the corner, tilting her head: " Are these..."

"Go ahead, it's unlock." Said Carth.

She opened it: "Oh, so here are my things."

"So you suggested we head out, see if we can find a way to sneak pass those Sith officers and then to the Under City to find Bastila." Skye asked after checking her gears and started to strap them on.

"Yes. Then we can think about how to get off this planet."

"All right, let's go then." Without further delay, she stood up and turned to the door.

"Are you well enough to head out?" Started, Carth expressed his concern.

"I'm fine." She carefully wrapped her lekku around her neck and slid a vibroblade into the pouch fasten on her belt. Left hand rose up and gently touched the bandage on her forehead. It still hurt a bit, possibly because of the bruise, but it should be fine: "My head still attach to my body, is it not? No worries."

"Okay…urh, before we leave, there is something I'd like to warn you." Just before they exited the door, Carth looked at her seriously: "The Upper City, urh, how do I put it, the Upper City citizen are mostly human."

Skye raised her eyebrow.

"They seem to have some nasty little problems with other species." Carth finished his sentence.

"Oh, I get it." Skye looked at him with mild affront: "So are you suggesting me staying in the apartment and let you out running around instead?"

"No, no." Carth's both hands were up: "I just want you to be careful. You won't be receiving much 'friendly welcome' here."

"….Point taken." Velvet blue eyes stared at him for a few minutes before turned around to press the open bottom at the side of the door.

They were in the corridor. Immediately there were troubles.

A group of Sith officers, strickly speaking, several battle droids lead by a Sith officers, were questioning two innocent looking Duros.

"All right, this is raid. Both of you standing against the door, now!" The Sith officer announced with a nasty smile on his face.

"But,.sir. You just raid this apartment. Now you are carrying out another raid! How many times are you going to do this today?" One of the Duros complained loudly, completely ignoring his companion's strong hint.

The Sith officer's reply was to fire the blaster at him without a word. The poor Duro did not even have a chance to pull out his rifle. He died.

"Now, any more question regarding how we preform out duty?" He waved his rifle about in triumph, then he noticed Skye and Carth: " What's this? A shutta and a human in the apartment? Since when we had this kind of trading business in the Upper City?"

Skye's gaze on this officer immediately burst with fury. Those Sith soldier's mouth certainly a hell lot dirtier on their mouth than her Republic colleagues'. She pulled out her blaster and pointed at his head. Carth did likewise. A series of clicking noise followed, everyone ended up have a blaster in their hand and pointed at the opposition.

"Watch you mouth, young man! Or I will personally do the mouth cleaning for you!" Carth snapped and warned.

"Oh, really? I would like to see you try! My warbots, gun them down!" The Sith officer sneered and began to fire in an instant.

The two parties start to exchange fire. Skye took a dive towards the left, pulled out a grenade from her pack, gently tap the 'safety detonation disable' bottom and threw the beeping ball at them. The Sith soldier saw its coming but unable to instruct his droids and himself to get away on time. With a loud bang and awful lot of smoke, all his droids were gone and he was injured quite badly.

"You…you…" The Sith officer's eyes almost bulge out with anger, he became cursing loudly. He threw away his rifle, pulled out his vibroblade and charge straight at Skye.

Skye skilfully turned her body sharply to the right to avoid the coming blade attack and pulled out her short sword. The Sith officer staggered forward a little because of the excess force he used. Skye used her elbow hitting the back of the officer. The next minute he knew, he was on the floor, making more frustrated scream. He quickly backed to his feet, turned around and charged at her again. Skye jumped into the midair and spung. She waved the sword in her hand. The blade cut through the Sith officer's shoulder. He let out yet another even louder scream, turned around and fluttered his vibroblade frantically at her. This time Carth blaster stopped him before he even reached her.

"_N__EVER, EVER, _called a Twi'lek woman 'shutta'!" Skye kicked the dead body crossly a few more times after he collapsed, followed by a series of very insulting names in all sorts of alien languages.

"All right, all right! He is dead! Let it go, will you!" Carth tried to pull her away. He couldn't help himself grinning. The way her eyes sparkle when she was feisty was absolutely amazing.

"…You had no idea what it was like to be called such a ludicrous insulting nickname way since you were at a very young age." Skye's eyes glared at Carth, still panting.

"Oh, I've been tag with even much much more ridiculous names all my life, this is nothing…" Carth threw her a smile before turned his attention at the remaining Duro, his eyes showed genuine concern: "Hey, buddy. Are you all right?"

"[Thank you very much, mate. I am quite fine. Compare to my less fortunate friend Ixgil.]" The Duro replied in Durese.

"He said he's fine." Skye translated as Carth looked at her enquiringly.

"[Ixgil shouldn't make such a smart-mouth comment like that. I tried to hint him, but … oh well, thanks anyway for your help.]" Duro continued.

"Shall we get rid of those?" Carth's head tilted at the bodies: "The Sith will manage to niff our track if they find their people's dead body lying here."

"[Tell your friend not to worry about the body, my friend.]" Duro intercepted before Skye replied: "[I will look after them. Think of it was a token of thanks, for saving my life.]"

"I got a feeling he said he is going to get rid of it for us, am I correct?" Carth looked at Skye, who gave him an affirmative nod. "Shall we move on?"

They thanked the Duro before continuing towards the apartment exit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic**

_**Taris**_

Part Two

Skye Imarr let out a big sigh and stared at the jug of juma juice in front of her, mumbling a little too loudly in a rather sarcastic tone, "What a lovely planet!"

She was sitting at the bar in the Upper City's cantina, waiting for Carth, who was talking to some Tarisian patron not very far from her. They'd been on this planet for more than a week now and had been spending the last three days wandering around the Upper City in search of some information about these crashed escape pods. She had to admit, the experience dealing with people in Upper City wasn't exactly a pleasant one. To start with, they didn't like off-worlders. So, wherever they went, people always had some kind of begrudging look on their faces when they saw them. Second, just like Carth had warned her, they had special problems with all aliens. They were either completely ignoring her, or avoiding her as soon as they spotted her from a distance, as if she carried some horrible plague, or openly teasing her with some very interesting name other than 'schutta' because it was way too rude to say. Most of the names were ones that she had never heard of in her life, and they were normally thrown at her when she politely approached them for a conversation. And, last but not least, they threw rock or debris at her as she and Carth walked by. There were several times when she was on the verge of tears. In the end, Carth kindly took over the chit-chat duty and asked her to wait at the bar.

"Just take a break for a minute. I will do this," he told her.

She glanced at Carth, who was listening with a pretended enthusiasm on his face to a Tarisian woman talking. His well-defined facial features drew a clear outline under the dim lights of the cantina. Undoubtedly, he was quite a handsome man. He also seemed to be full of mystery. On one hand, he was an outstanding pilot and commander who would not hesitate to risk his own life for his men when the situation came or spend day and night looking after them when they were injured or unconscious, and he seemed the type who would crack a joke at the drop of the hat and leave everyone in stitches, which she admitted she had never been able to do. And on the other hand, he seemed to build up a wall between himself and others. He did not seem to trust anyone, including her. Skye knew very little about him, other than he was a war hero and his homeworld was among the first one that the Sith destroyed. He seemed quite discreet about it and got a bit frustrated and upset every time the topic was mentioned. Occasionally, she caught him staring at some little children happily playing with their mother, and his mind clearly was somewhere else.

What happened to him in the past? What was it that was so obviously painful, why had he decided to seclude himself from the rest, and why was no one was allowed to touch that memory? Did he understand that she had nothing to do with his past, that he shouldn't shut her out or not trust her fully when they had to work together? How was she be able to make him know and understand that there was nothing worrisome or suspicious about her?

"Okay, here is how it goes." Carth's husky voice drew her attention back to the present. "Apparently, a few days ago, the Sith sent a search party down to the Under City, but whether they found anything was unknown. Oh, hmm… I also got a hint that the only way to get pass the guard at the entrance to the Lower City at this stage is to disguise as one of them. There was a rumour that they stopped issuing authorization papers last week."

"That was just bloody marvellous, isn't it!" said Skye grudgingly. "Where on earth are we going to find a full set of Sith armor? You can't exactly buy them from the shops here, can you?"

Carth seemed to be quite stressed about this, too. He grabbed Skye's barely touched juma juice, gave her a "May I?" look, and gulped the jar down in one go before she even said yes.

"Huh… there is also one small problem…" Carth seemed a bit hesitant.

"Oh, Goody. Spill it then, I think I can handle one more blow."

"We are on the verge of running out of credits."

"What? How the hell did that happen?" Skye snapped. "We haven't exactly been on some kind of shopping spree here."

"No, but we couldn't use our military pension accounts, remember? We were worried the Sith might found out." Carth ordered another jug of juma juice.

"Oh, ...right ." Skye let out a long sigh and rubbed her eyes. "Now we have just added another problem on our list: earn some credits under Sith's nose… Sorry, I've been acting like a grumpy child throwing a tantrum, have I? It just…the treatment I've received so far is a bit… overwhelming to me."

"No, don't worry about it." Carth waved his hands dismissively.

"I thought I should got used to this by now…" Skye looked around the bar with some kind of despair and sadness in her eyes.

"It's not your fault. People on this planet have a problem. They are the ones who should take the blame, not you," said Carth gently. "How come you are the one that has to square your shoulders and bear all this? They need to update their behaviour. This is a hyperspace era, not bloody pre-historic flesh-munching days."

"…Thanks. You are very nice." Skye looked at him gratefully.

"What do you mean?" Carth raised his eyebrow, looking all very surprise. "I am nice."

Skye chuckled.

Carth winked back before he turned around to ask the droid bartender not very far from her for another drink.

They'd been out and about in this damn city for days now. Carth found it was harder and harder to put a stern poker face on himself whenever Skye was around. He had to keep reminding himself what happened to him the last time he had fully trusted somebody. Skye was an attractive woman, Although there were still some unexplainable odd bits of hers that were really hard to explain: like she didn't seem to need any sleep; like she often stared at the space in front of her blankly with the saddest look on her face; like she knew all the combat skills, such as Echani and Mandalorians, like she was naturally born with them. Carth knew the Republic didn't train their soldiers in those styles. Another thing was how she was unable to explain how one of the last surviving crewmember of the _Endar Spire_ happened to be the additional crew the Jedi had requested at the last minute, and how she was also unable to explain what exactly had she done on the ship or where she was before this mission. She was like a reflection in the water: he could see her fine, but when he wanted to look a little closer it became blurry. But weren't all women like that? Carth didn't have a clue. His times around women were pretty limited.

"Hey, there, care if I buy you a drink?" A smooth talking voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned around and noticed a man was talking to Skye.

"….Urrh..sure." Skye seemed a bit startled.

"My name is Yun Genda. Please call me Yun," the man introduced himself after ordering a drink for Skye.

"Please to meet you, Yun. My name is Skye Imarr. This is my partner…urh…. Josh." Skye nodded towards Carth's direction, giving Carth a secret twinkle smile.

"You aren't local, are you?"

"You are kidding right?" Skye chuckled softly. This had to be the worst pick-up line she had ever heard. "When was the last time you saw a Twi'lek in the Upper City cantina other than those dancers?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Yun went pink and deflated a bit. "It's just that most people here don't normally talk to a Sith officer. They don't even bother to acknowledge them most of the time."

"You are a Sith officer?" Skye's eyes widened. "You surely don't look like one. What happened to your uniform?"

Carth sat up straight a little bit; his attention was now suddenly full on.

"In case you didn't notice," Yun pointed towards the sign at the door. "No uniform is allowed in the cantina. Not like I want to put them on anyway. This name badge on my chest is bad enough to me. If I am in uniform people may just spit on me as soon as I go anywhere near them. "

"My Force."

"Exactly. So..what brings you here, pretty lady?" Yun asked slickly.

"….Got stuck with this quarantine thingy. Couldn't go anywhere for days," Skye lied.

"I thought so. Sorry about that, sometimes I don't understand how and why they were doing up there, all I do is my job. But people can be so judgmental. They think all Sith are…." Yun said.

"Oh, I understand perfectly. A soldier has to obey their orders," Skye nodded with feigned agreement.

"Exactly. Now I wish everybody in the Upper City was as civilized and perceptive as you," Yun grinned. "Say, do you have any plans tonight?"

"Not really. Why?" Skye raised her eyebrow.

"It's not every day I would bump into someone like you, and...not going to lie, I really want to see you again. My colleagues and I are planing to have a party at the apartments after our shift tonight. You know, to let off a little steam. It will be straight from work so some of us may still be in uniform! I was wondering… if you would like to drop by?" smiled Yun.

Skye cocked her head towards her left, as if she was seriously considering his invitation. After about a minute, she smiled back to Yun. "Sure, I would love to."

"Great!" Yun's face broke into a devastating grin. "So, I guess I will see you there, then?"

"Of course. I will see you!" Skye raised the Tarisian Ale he bought him towards him.

"I sensed you are planning something." Carth raised his eyebrow after the Sith officer left. His lips curled, leaned closer towards Skye and whispered quietly. "What do you have in mind?"

"Did you hear that he said '…some of us may still be in uniform'?" Skye whispered back proudly, while pretending to have some profound interests on the glass she had in her hand. "I think we have our Sith uniform problem solved."

"Wonderful!" Carth couldn't help but smile. "We are finally going somewhere….What's wrong?" He noticed Skye suddenly started staring at his face as if he had extra nose coming out from his forehead.

"…..Nothing, just didn't know you could smile like that." Skye turned her head away quickly and replied with mild embarrassment. "It is actually quite nice."

"'Course it is. Haven't you heard what other people called me?" Possibly because of the drink or because there was hope on making some progress of their plan, Carth winked.

"What? Hairless Wookiee?" Skye joked back with playfulness in her tone.

"No," said Carth sarcastically.

"Handsome thug?" Skye suggested.

"No. But you are very close. I'm more partial to 'the most handsome pilot in the Galaxy', Gorgeous." Carth waved his finger. His eyes flickered with something that Skye didn't know.

"Pardon?" _What did he just said?_

"What? Which one? 'The most handsome pilot in the Galaxy' or the 'Gorgeous' part?"

"…The latter." Skye glared at Carth for a few minutes before her stunned mind clicked in. "Oh, you gotta be better than that!"

"How about 'Beautiful?'" Chuckling, Carth suggested.

"…Hmm, that's no good, either." Skye chewed her lips, acted as she was giving it some serious thought.

"Well, guess you'll just have to settle with 'Gorgeous,' then," Carth shrugged before cracking himself with laughter.

"Carth," asked Skye. "...Are you flirting with me?"

"No, just a habit," Carth laughed softly, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Your habit sure has proven very entertaining, Carth." Skye gave him an evil smirk.

"What, don't you like it?" Carth's eyes widened, giving her his most innocent look.

Skye did not answer. She shrugged and gave him a little nonchalant smile before turning her head away. She put her glass down on the bar counter gracefully.

"We better go–" Her words trailed off. Something had caught her attention. Her eyes suddenly narrowed. She quickly slid off from the high chair and zoomed across the room towards outside. Carth quickly jumped off his chair and followed.

He found Skye standing not very far from the other room, reading a very battered and torn poster on the wall.

Most of the print on it was unreadable, but you could guess the idea from the bits and pieces here and there. The heading of the poster was still there. It was printed with big bold embroidered letters in Basic and at least two other alien languages.

_OFFICIAL DUELING CHALLENGE! DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE CHAMPION OF THE RING?_

"I think," Skye tabbing her long elegant fingers at the poster with a triumphant smile on her face, after she carefully studied the old poster for a good ten minutes. "I've found the solution of our little credit shortage problems."

x x x

Ajuur the Hutt batted his heavy eyelids and stared at the two strangers in front of him. He could not believe his luck. It had been quite some time since some fresh faces came up to him, wanting to enter the Duel Ring. Twitch was good, but he had lost his charm. The audience needed a fresh face for stimulation and he really needed something to boost his ticket sales.

His eyes narrowed. Now, this might be just the one he needed. If she was good enough to make it….

"[Sorry?]" He put down the wine glass in his sausage hand and answered the stranger in front of him in Huttese. "[You said you want to enter the Duel Ring?]"

"Yes," replied Skye firmly.

"[I presume you know how this works?]" Ajuur's eyes scanned Skye from top to toe. Hmm, he had never had a Twi'lek in his Duel Ring before. She appeared to be in good health, her physique seemed pretty good, and way she held the weapon in her hands meant she had some degree of knowledge in that area.

"I was hoping you can explain this to me," said Skye seriously.

"[All right.]" Ajuur nodded. "[It is pretty simple, really. Here is how it works: you enter the arena, you defeat whoever your opponent is, and I will pay you 50% of the income I got from ticket sales and bets. You can do anything to prevail your opponent except killing them, as it is illegal now on _Taris_.]"

"Right. How soon can you arrange a fight for me?" queried Skye.

"Wait a minute," intercepted Carth. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, yes, we are in shortage of credits, but…there must be other way…."

"It should be fine," Skye assured Carth. "The worst thing that can happen is I get seriously injured and I won't let it happened. This is the only way to earn credits _fast_ and remain undetected by the Sith."

"[I can arrange a match for you now if you are ready.]" Ajuur replied.

"Excellent, I am ready now. Please arrange a match for me." Blue hues return to the Hutt.

"[Very well, I shall arrange a fight for you immediately.]" Ajuur clapped his hands and announced happily: "[Now, we need to pick a name for you, or you prefer to use your real name?]"

"No, please pick a name for me," said Skye.

"Of course, in this case the Sith won't even notice. Good job, Skye," said Carth quietly by her ears, giving her a thumbs up.

Skye's blue eyes drifted from the Hutt to him temporarily and gave him a wink.

"[How about the name 'Mysterious Stranger'?]"

"That sounds fine," Skye nodded. Any name but her true name was good.

"[Good, please wait here. Your first match will be started very shortly.]"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Had been a little busy so did not upload the new chapter. But here we are. Hope you guys still like it.**

* * *

**Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic**

_Taris_

Part Three

"Ladies and gentlemen, draw your eyes to the center ring. We have a very special presentation in store for you. Hold on to your seats and stay back from the edges of the ring. He's wild, he's unpredictable, he's borderline psychotic... and he's the best damn duelist in the game today! Give it up for... Twitch!"

People in the arena began to cheer enthusiastically.

"But Twitch's opponent plans to take the champion down," the commentator continued. "Night after night, battle after battle, we've watched this young phenomenon rise through the ranks. In this corner, the challenger for the title of Taris Dueling Champion, our first ever Twi'lek, the Mysterious Stranger!"

Carth Onasi shifted his body with discomfort, moving his weight from his left leg to his right. He was in a dreadful anxious state. He felt as though his stomach was filled with tons of pebbles and tied into a thousand knots. He was sweating buckets. There were two Ithorians chattering excitedly in some alien language, presumably about the match. Carth would not have a clue, since the one and only person he knew who could possibly understand the language was right in the middle of the arena a few meters away from his spectators' stand.

It was the fifth night since his companion signed up for the Duel Ring Challenge. She would be facing the current dueling champion Twitch tonight. Although they were no longer in shortage of credits after the first two matches, Skye Imarr still decided to fight with the remaining duelists for reasons known to only Skye herself. It wasn't that he doubted her combat ability or anything. She had more than proven that her skills were beyond the impressive level. But somehow he was still very nervous about the whole match thing, worrying that every time she walked into the arena would be her last.

Carth moved his body slightly to shift his weight back to his left leg again. His leg kicked into their backpack at the bottom of his boots and made a loud clanging noise. It was the Sith uniform they had managed to steal from the party a few nights back. He could remembered vividly how they waited for what felt like millennia for all the party goers to collapse from excessive Tarisian Ale drinking, and how they gingerly sneaked around them to search their bags for the uniforms. All that was left to do now was to finish off this Force damn dueling match tonight and they were off to the Lower City tomorrow.

The crowd began to cheer, which indicated that the match had started. Carth looked down from the spectator stand just in time to see Skye's slim body back flip into the mid-air to avoid Twitch's fast-flying blaster fire.

"Twitch begins his attack on the Mysterious Stranger. Attacking the opponent off guard, higher chances of winning. Good on you, Twitch!" the commentator reported in a roaring voice. One would thought he was totally drunk. Perhaps he did. But no one appeared to care.

Twitch's fast firing was quite famous, and Carth began to know why tonight. He could not even see the trigger being pulled; all he saw was blaster fire, one shot after the other without any gaps. It was little wonder how Skye handled such a rapid fire with ease. All he saw was a blur image of hers tilting left, right and left again and the fire went straight past her with no damage or injure on her body whatsoever at all, not even a scratch.

"Holly mother of gizka! Did you see that? Did you see the way she moves? Will someone please replay this to me, in slow motion, once it is over? I haven't seen anyone who can avoid Twitch's attack like this at all!" The commentator's voice thundered through the arena. Carth suddenly had a very strong temptation to fire his own blaster at him just to shut him up.

The stress showed after a while, as Twitch seemed to be getting visibly upset and fired his blaster even more aggressively and frantically. Skye, on the other hand, was still as calm as cucumber. She sweated a little from all the running around, but that was about it. Gradually, she moved towards Twitch and advanced her attack on him with her two vibroblades. Twitch threw away his blaster and switched to vibroswords to fend off her attack. The loud noises the blades made when they occasionally collided echoed around the entire arena. People suddenly stopped talking, including the commentator. They held their breath, eyes following the two combatants' every move. Carth noticed that Skye's luminous sapphire eyes were sparkling and glowing with excitements. Her lips curled upwards. She seemed to have a jolly good time doing this.

Signs of tiredness started to show on Twitch and his attack began to slow down a little. Obviously Skye noticed this, too, because her attack seemed to change as soon as Twitch's defense was weakened. She fluffed her vibroblades skillfully and tackled the flaws in his combat with excellent precision. Twitch managed to fend off a couple but not all of them. It wasn't very long before Twitch began to suffer damage and quickly was crumbling down.

"Good Force! Oh, my good Force! I can't believe it! I bloody cannot believe it!" the commentator was practically shouting at the top of his head, his voice hoarse but sounded mightily impressed. For a moment Carth thought his voice might break. "History has been made tonight! We have just witnessed the match of the century! Twitch's reign of terror is over! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new champion: the Mysterious Stranger!"

Noise of the cheering crowds nearly ripped the roof of the arena off.

Skye was still breathing quite heavily when Carth greeted her at the entrance of Ajuur's office.

"Excellent work, Skye. I must say whoever trained you in this did a superb job!" Carth couldn't help himself grinning at Skye. His voice was filled with uncontrollable relief.

Skye nodded towards Carth. She seemed to be pretty pleased with herself, too. She strolled to Ajuur at the other side of the room.

"[Outstanding performance! Absolutely outstanding!]" Ajuur was extremely happy with the broadcasting rating and the ticket sales. He was literally beaming from ear to ear and you could barely see his eyes anymore. "[People will definitely talking about this match for years to come! Now, here are the credits I promised you.]" He handed over the credits, which Skye accepted and thanked him politely.

"[Now you are the new champion on Taris. Congratulations! There will be no one above you now…unless you count Bendak Starkiller, the former champion before Twitch. He retired from the Duel Ring long ago. It is such a shame; otherwise it will be another blood-boiling match!]" chattered Ajuur happily.

"Bendak Starkiller?"

"[Oh yes, he was our best. Twitch would be no match if he were around. But like I said, he retired long ago. I've heard rumors that he occasionally will be here to watch the match. But he had never entered the Duel Ring again.]" Ajuur picked up a big handful of the snack in his plate, stuffed it into his mouth in one go, and chewed away.

"Oh, I see." Skye seemed immersed in thought.

"Why do I have this feeling you want to fight whoever this Ban... guy?" Carth's thick eyebrow rose as he noticed Skye visibly scanning the cantina as they were on their way out. "You do remember we need to get to the Lower City tomorrow, don't you?"

"…I do.." Skye replied reluctantly. "I don't know. I have this…urge…I want to go all the way to the top of this and make sure there is no one left. I don't know why."

Carth gazed at her for a while, finally he mumbled, almost toward himself:

"...You have that look again."

"What look?" Somehow Skye had heard it.

_The vulnerable angel look_, thought Carth inwardly. The look that had, for a moment, made him believe there was someone he could trust; the look that was hardly noticeable, but very slow, awoke the part of his heart that he had once thought was long dead; the look that twigged his heart violently, making him want to protect her at all cost.

"What look, Carth?" asked Skye again half-heartily, her eyes still searching for Bendak Starkiller.

Carth did not reply. He noticed a Mandalorian-looking person standing at the corner of the pazaak room. He looked utterly familiar; Carth had never seen him in this room before. However, he remembered spotting this person a few times on the spectators' stands in the Duel Ring arena.

"Hey…." Carth pointed at the Mandalorian to Skye, gladly distracting her attention to something else. "Do you think that's the Ban guy?"

Skye narrowed her eyes and glared at the direction Carth was pointing at.

"Hmm…I don't know. Why don't we ask him?" And she was off, without waiting for him to nod.

They approached the Mandalorian with some degree of caution. The person gave them a nod of acknowledgment as they walked near, which was not all that surprising since the Duel Ring match had just finished less than half an hour ago.

"Mysterious Stranger, WOW!" The Mandalorian greeted them with mild sarcasm, his voice sounding slightly odd when coming out of his helmet. "Oh, yes. Your performance surely was impressive."

"Are you Bendak Starkiller?" queried Skye politely.

"That's my name. Now how may I have this pleasure to assist the first Twi'lek in Duel Ring history?"

"I was told you retired from the Ring. Why?" Skye asked.

"The Duel Ring is now just for those faint-hearted pretenders who can't even stand seeing a single blood drop!" Scoffed Bendak: " They are not even worthy enough for me to move me finger! Now, _you _are different."

"Different?"

"Yeah, I've seen you fight. You have proven yourself worthy in front of me. Are you daring enough to fight with me? I don't mean fighting like one of those babies whose milk teeth haven't even fallen out yet, bloody mother of gizka, even my socks are older than any of them! I mean the real _fight to the dead _fight. What say you?"

Skye did not responded straight away. She puckered her eyebrow for a long minute, as though she was seriously considering the challenge. Finally, she nodded her head.

" All right. I dare you."

Sparkle blasted straight out of Bendak's eyes. Suddenly he seemed anxious, vibrant, energetic, colorful, and…alive.

"Excellent. Let me have a quick chat with Ajuur now. I believe he will organize a match for us very soon."

"You are _not_ serious, are you? Or mental?" Carth questioned Skye as she prepared herself in the combatant's restroom fifteen minutes later. "You've just finished the Champion's match less than an hour ago, and now you jump straight into another match?"

"It will not affect our plan." Skye reloaded her blaster and practiced her aiming at the locker in the corner of the room. "We can still go to the Lower City tomorrow morning."

"Whether it will affect our plan is not my major concern at this point." Carth sat down on the other bench in front of her and buried his face in his hands. "This match is different. Haven't you heard what they said? This is a _fight till you're dead_. No one will be leaving the arena until someone dies!"

"That person will not be me," said Skye affirmatively. Her tinted blue face glowed with confidence. "Don't worry about me."

"...I am not worried about you," Carth denied instinctively.

"Oh, really, Wookiee? Keep saying that." Sky's sapphire eyes twinkled.

"Ladies and gentlemen, come with me now on a journey to the savage days of years gone by to a time when two combatants entered the arena and only one came out alive. They're illegal. They're banned. They've been outlawed for nearly ten years, but we've got one for you tonight: a good, old-fashioned... DEATH MATCH!"

The commentator's excited voice echoed back and forth across the arena. Skye glanced at the pouch clipped on her waist belt and quickly ran a inventory diagnostic inwardly. There were two usual medpacs, three advanced ones and one life support pack – given by the kind doctor Zelka whom they had met in the medical place a few days ago. Zelka was a compassionate, generous doctor. Not only had he hidden away the serious injured _Endar Spire_ crew members who did not make it through the crash of their escape pods, so they did not have to suffer the terrible fate of being horribly tortured by the Sith to the end of their lives, but he also did some research on a very rare, incurable disease – Rakghoul Disease, a disease that so far only existed in the Under City. It caused great suffering among people who lived in the City. Unlike most citizens in Upper City, Zelka did not have any problems with alien species or offworlders, and he, Skye, and Carth had become friends almost immediately. Zelka heard rumors saying that the research facility had made some discovery about the cure and managed to produce some kind of serum before the quarantine and the Sith officers who entered the Under City might carry it. Skye and Carth had promised him that they'd keep an eye out for the serum if the chance arose.

She pulled out the vibrosword and firmly gripped it in her right hand, catching a glimpse of Carth's concerned face among the cheering spectators. Something unfamiliar stirred deep within her. She quickly looked away. It was not the right time to dwell on those profound thoughts.

"In this corner, a living legend. A man whose very name would make his opponents shake in their boots... if any of them were still alive! Out of retirement for one last battle... Bendak Starkiller!" The commentator continued to make introductions.

The crowds cheered ever more loudly.

"And who would be crazy enough to step into the ring with such a lethal legend? Who would be mad enough to face almost certain death merely for your enjoyment? Ladies and gentlemen, feast your wondering eyes on... the Mysterious Stranger, our favorite Twi'lek in the entire galaxy!"

For a moment Skye was sure the roof of the arena was definitely going to fly off.

"And now... the moment we've all been waiting for... Let the death match begin!"

Bendak's attack started almost as soon as the "match begin" siren went off. Within seconds he was already in front of her, slashing his sword at her direction. Skye dived away just in time to avoid the blade going through her body. She took a roll on the floor and stood up. Several grenades were then flying at her direction. Skye back flipped to avoid one but could not get away from the other on time. One explosion later, she was surrounded in some kind of yellowish smoke and choked hysterically. Suddenly the whole arena started to spin and she began to feel dizzy.

"Poison grenade," Skye whispered to herself, while hurriedly reaching for her waist pouch, searching for the antidote. When her fingers finally felt one, she immediately grabbed it, tore off the seal with her mouth and stuck the syringe straight towards the vein on her upper leg.

The attack of the Starkiller continued. Compared to his, Twitch's were like turtles'. Skye had to keep wielding her vibrosword to fend off Bendak's ever advancing blade, while trying dead hard to pull herself away from him to secure some distance. When she was hit by grenades for the umpteenth time and her antidotes were running dangerously low, she realized she needed a sound plan.

"CARTH!" Her voiced shot through the thundering cheering crowds. "ECHANI SHIELD!"

Almost immediately a small, whitish arm plate flew from the spectators' stand. Skye rushed over, jumped into midair, equipped it and switched it on swiftly. An electro-static field glowed around her slender body, wrapping her in some kind of bluish color.

"Wait, wait a minute," the commentator remarked enthusiastically. "Is this legal? Is this allowed? Can a combatant call his or her companion for assistance in a dueling match? Goodness gracious me… Well, looks like the judges don't mind. This is a illegal match after all, as long as they don't both come out alive, I don't think anybody will care…."

Skye pulled out a vibroblade and held it in her left hand firmly. As quick as lightning, she spun around and then charged straight towards the Starkiller. He did not expect the Twi'lek to turn around and attack him this soon. He, for the first time in this match, or in his personal dueling history for that matter, took some hits.

"Bendak is hit. OH MY FORCE! Bendak Starkiller is hit! No one on _Taris _ has managed to go anywhere near him as far as I know of, not to mention actually cut him in the slightest! Now, our Mysterious Stranger has achieved just that! This match has just become very, very interesting! Don't turn your little beady eyes on your big scones away from the center court for a split second from now, folks. Otherwise you might be moaning till your dying days for what you've missed!"

Skye was not paying any attention whatsoever to what the commentator had just said. She was busy doing all her best not being hit, by grenades or swords or blasters while attempting to make her next attack. The burn marks formed by the explosions were now almost everywhere in the center court, and there was thin layer of smoke in the arena. It became quite difficult for both the combatants and the spectators to see anything.

Skye held her melee weapon up and every single cell of her body was in full alert. She couldn't exactly see where Bendak was; the last time she had caught any sight of him was along the left edge of the center court…

Something cold and metallic cut through her lekku. Although the Echani shield was on and took come effect, Skye still felt the burning sensation immediately. A few drops of blue blood appeared on the bottom of her feet.

Bendak was right behind her.

"MY FORCE, the Mysterious Strangers is also hit!" the commentator screamed in a very high pitch noise. "Looks like Bendak Starkiller hasn't lost his touch!"

Even through the smoke, Skye Imarr could see Bendak smiling. She cursed quietly, quickly pulled herself away from the blurry shadow, managed to inject some medpacs, and took a deep breath.

"All right, don't panic, if you can't see him with your eyes, _sense_ it, _feel_ it," she murmured to herself.

She closed her eyes, breath in deeply one more time, and stretched her senses.

Soon, as though she was toppled with a bucket with icy water, she started to _feel_ every inch of her body, and then the ground she was standing on, then the center court she was in, then whoever was standing on it…. Suddenly, she could feel every living being within this very arena and every word they were saying. She could feel Carth leaning against the barrier of the spectator's stands; his knuckles were as white as marble from holding on the handle way too tightly. Skye did not know how she knew how to do this; it just came very naturally like breathing; it was like she was born with this ability.

_How do I know this?_ she queried inwardly. _Where did I learn this from?_

Something stirred behind her left. She spun around and used all her might to thrust her vibrosword towards it…

A thump and a moan meant she had just successfully stuck her melee weapon through Bendak Starkiller. The smoke suddenly cleared up, Skye saw the surprised and stunned eyes that belonged to the Mandalorian looking straight at her.

"Bendak is down! It's over, it's over, the fight is over!" The commentator's now husky voice once again thundered through the loudspeaker. " Bendak Starkiller is down! Bendak Starkiller is dead! All hail the Mysterious Stranger!"

"This…this can't be true…"Bendak mumbled to Skye as she approached his dying body. " I am the invincible champion Bendak Starkiller. I should be the one who's alive… It shouldn't…"

Skye gently removed Bendak's helmet. She saw a white-faced middle-aged man glaring back at her.

"Perhaps….this is how it meant to be…yes." Blood poured out of his mouth. He reached out his bloody hand and gently touched her light pearl blue face. "Yes, you had proven yourself worthy….to prevail me…..excellent…."

"It is my privilege and honor to fight with you, Bendak." Skye bowed her head.

Bendak smiled at her, and then the life slowly left his face. His head slid aside.

Bendak Starkiller was dead.


End file.
